State governments in Nigeria are also exploiting the use of the Internet and the world-wide-web in delivering information and services to the citizenry. The majority of them now have online presence cum websites as a new and additional point of contact for the growing part of the population that uses the Internet.

However, while some states governments are maximising the opportunities inherent in the use of websites to engage with the electorates and the general public in their respective domains, some go to sleep soon after they launch their state websites.

Experts say well managed government websites would not only bring governance closer to the people but will also be a conduit for policymakers and their audiences to engage in dialogue and open exchange of information, to foster a better understanding of each other’s areas of need.

Thus functional government websites could be used to announce policies and programmes.

Here is a feel of happenings on state government websites in the country

North East

In the North Eastern geo-political zone, Bauchi State seems to be leading the pack in terms of the management of its website. The website — bauchistate.gov.ng — is being regularly updated while social media plug-ins such as Facebook and Twitter are available on the site.

Two websites are currently in operational use for Adamawa State. One is adamawa.gov.ng and the other is adamawastate.gov.com. adamawa.gov.ng, which boasts a handful of social media plug-ins, was last updated on May 28, 2012.

The last update was the announcement that the state government had launched a new website — adamawastate.gov.com. When adamawastate.gov.com was visited, our correspondent was welcomed with the message, “This domain name expired on February 18, 2013 and is pending renewal or deletion.”

bornostate.gov.ng, with its easy navigation and visual resolution, is not being updated frequently. The last time a piece of information was put on the site was on January 15, 2013 when it was announced that the state government created jobs through its farm irrigation initiative.

gombestate.gov.ng and gombestategov.com, belonging to Gombe State government, are no different from each other. Both are not being fed with current activities of the state government. Besides, both websites are not social media-friendly as no social plug-ins were found on the site.

The way and manner the two websites of Gombe State are being managed is no different from yobestate.gov.com. Apart from lacking in updates on activities of the state, yobestate.gov.com’s visual resolution is not too good.

However, the server of tarabastate.gov.ng, the official website of Taraba State, could not be found.

North West

In the North West, Sokoto State’s website, sokotostate.gov.ng’s account had been suspended. When our correspondent visited the site on Monday, he was welcomed with the message, “This account has been suspended.” Also, the server of the website of Kebbi State, kebbistate.gov.ng, which was not indexed by Google search engine, was not found.

On zamfarastate.net, the message read, “Site Temporarily Unavailable. We apologise for the inconvenience. Please contact the webmaster/ tech support immediately to have them rectify this.”

Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna and Katsina states have functional websites in the North Wesst geo-political zone.

Indeed, Kano and Katsina states set the pace in the zone, as they regularly update their websites, kano.gov.ng and katsinastate.gov.ng respectively. However, there is a need for social plug-ins to make the online presence of both states truly social.

Kadunastate.gov.org and jigawastate.gov.ng, which both have rich content about the people’s culture are not being fed with current events at it pertains to activities of the state governments. Kadunastate.gov.ng, which does not have social plug-ins, was last fed with an update on January 9, 2013, with the news of the launch of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration by the state governor, Mukhtar Yero.